Category Archives: personal

At the Lantern Festival

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<br /> What’s Your Zodiac Animal?<br />

Fun With the Chinese Zodiacs


This week we visited the local John Ball Park Zoo for a special attraction themed the Lantern Festival. It’s an annual event whereby the park is transformed into a mile long pathway filled with thousands of colorful and clever Asian lanterns. These amazing displays come in all sizes – small, mediium, large and gigantic.

It’s a great venue for photographers such as myself and I had an easy time of selecting subjects to shoot. For this article, I’ll stick to a few pictures that illustrate the festival’s Asian origin.

Most of you are at least slightly familiar with the zodiac animals that you might see on the menu or placemat at a Chinese restaurant. These have special meaning to those who follow this cultural norm.

The zodiac consist of twelve animals that represent a particular lunar year. Each animal has certain characteristics and a person born in a given year takes on the personality of the animal.

I was born in the year of the ox. Supposedly my personality is “diligent, dependable, strong, determined”. I’ll let others decide if these adjectives describe my personality.

Here are the lanterns that illustrate the Chinese zodiac.



RAT

1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008, 2020

Quick-witted, resourceful, versatile, kind



OX

1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009, 2021

Diligent, dependable, strong, determined



TIGER

1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998,2010, 2022

Brave, confident, competitive



RABBIT

1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011, 2012

Quiet, elegant, kind, responsiblle



DRAGON

1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988.2000, 2012, 2024

Confident, intelligent, enthusiastic



SNAKE

1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013, 2025

Enigmatic, intelligent, wise

 



HORSE

1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2014, 2026

Animated, active, energetic



GOAT

1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015, 2027

Calm, gentle, sympathetic



MONKEY

1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, 2016, 2028

Sharp, smart, curious



ROOSTER

1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017, 2029

Observant, hardworking, courageous



DOG

1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, 2018, 2030

Lovely, honest, prudent



PIG

1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019, 2031

Compassionate, generous, diligent

I took many more pictures than I’ve shown you here. As time permits, I’ll have another article that shows you many more amazing and clever lanterns from the festival.

 

We enjoyed this year’s Lantern Festival and the clever presentations of the Chinese zodiac animals.

Does your personality match the animal of your birth year?

Written by:

Arnie Lee

Reference: Personality traits from Creative Arts Guild

 

 


Redux: Rosie The Riveter

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<br /> Our Family’s Rosies<br />

Our Three Rosies


During World War II millions of men volunteered or were conscripted to serve in the military. As the men left the workforce, the country’s factories were desperately short of employees – especially the factories that directly supported the war effort.

Our government immediately started a national recruitment effort asking women to join the depleted workforce. Using the well known Rosie the Riveter posters, they called on women to show their patriotism with their labor. In all, some 6 million women were employed by these war time factories.



Earlier this month this article caught my attention.

Some 80 years after WWII some of these women were awared the Congressional Gold Medal for their service.



These ladies are my mother and three of her sisters.

In the early 1940s, Mom and two of these sisters volunteered to work building aircraft to support the war effort.

Over the years, Mom related bits and pieces about their early years working for the war effort. Each day the three traveled from their home in New Rochelle, NY to the General Motors assembly plant had been converted to build wings for the Grumman Avenger torpedo bomber. Without a car, they were given a ride with a neighbor who also worked at the plant in Tarrytown, NY about twenty-five miles away.



This is a photograph of my Aunt Millie working on one of the assembly lines. I think she qualifies as a Rosie.



In 2012 I visited Tarrytown and snapped this photo.

This is the ground on which the General Motors assembly plant stood. You can see some of the rusted steel beams.

By this time, the plant had been demolished to make way for new condos which were going to be built on this site.

While neither Mom nor her sisters received Congressional Gold Metals, I ordered three of these commemorative metals for the families of Mom and two her sisters.



Here’s one of the metals that I purchased for Mom and her sisters.



Flip the coin over and you can see another image of the symbolic Rosie.



Aunt Jeanne’s Layoff Notice

For four years these hard working women had served the country making critical equipment and supplies.

Shortly after the war ended the factories were no longer producing military supplies. As a result most of the women were dismissed. Here is a layoff notification that my aunt received at the conclusion of one of her shifts.

 

We should thank all of these women for their dedication and patriotism. You can read a portion of the General Motors operation in Tarrytown during the war years by clicking here.

 

 

If you know someone who fits the Rosie the Riveter moniker you can order one of the commemorative metals from the United States Mint as a way to thank them.

Written by:

Arnie Lee

 

 


Let’s Go Skiing

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<br /> Lake Tahoe Snow<br />

Snow in the Sierras


Lots of winter snow is a boon for those who love to ski.

The Lake Tahoe area is noted for its many ski slopes. This past March our plan was to visit relatives in Reno, Nevada and then drive to one of the nearby ski resorts. We made plane reservations, packed and were on our way.



We traveled by plane from our home in Grand Rapids to Reno which is the closest airport to Lake Tahoe.



We arrived in Reno to some very nasty weather on Friday. Snow in the Sierras was predicted to be six feet deep.

As predicted the snow fell heavily over the Lake Tahoe area. Some places reported eight feet of the white fluffy stuff. Yes, as skiers we welcomed the snow – but not this much. All of the ski resorts were closed to the public as the workers there were doing their best to dig the lifts and gondolas out of the deluge and groom the slopes and trails.

The interstate highway from Nevada to California was closed for safety reasons and the traffic was stopped at the state line for three days.

On Monday my son who lives in the area said that we might try to reach one of the ski resorts by an alternate route. To our surprise these roads were relatively clear of the snow. Instead of a drive of 45 minutes by the interstate we drove for two hours to reach Truckee, CA by this “backdoor” road.

Truckee is home to the Northstar Ski Resort and sits close to the north shore of Lake Tahoe. Since the main road to Truckee was closed in both directions – Nevada from the east and California from the west, the parking lot was not very full.



On the back road we were treated to some very nice scenery.



The alternate road was relatively clear of snow and tarffic.


 



Here’s our skiing crew ready to hit the slopes at Northstar.



The four of them are ascending on the quad chair.


 



Later on we took the gondola to one of the higher slopes where we enjoyed the view from the top.



The skiing was great with lots of fresh powder and uncrowded slopes.





We finished skiing by late afternoon. We took the interstate that was closed for three days had just reopened. Half way back to Reno we could see that the vehicles stopped at the Nevada-California border since Friday were starting to move on the other side of the highway. As you can see there were an amazing number of vehicles crawling along Interstate 80 to reach California.


We’ll remember the time we asked for snow and received way more than we needed.

 

Our March ski trip turned out well despite the exorbitant amount of snow that the Sierras received. We also got to visit with our son and his family for a few days.

Written by:

Arnie Lee